


The Backup

by ArcticLucie



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Angst with a Happy Ending, Developing Relationship, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Jealous Jim, Love Confessions, M/M, Roommates, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 13:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9729611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcticLucie/pseuds/ArcticLucie
Summary: Leonard reluctantly agrees to be Jim's backup date if neither can find one for Valentine's Day, but like most things that involve James T. Kirk, things don't exactly go to plan.





	

Being roommates with his best friend meant Jim Kirk had a partner in crime within reach at all times, but for Leonard Horatio McCoy it meant something else entirely. Somehow he let that infantile fool drag him out of the comfort of his own bed any time a half-baked plan formed in his corn-fed mind, usually with embarrassing consequences for one of them. Leonard liked to think Jim bore the brunt of it, but he knew that was a lie.

But the week before Valentine’s Day—stupid, ancient holiday if you asked him—Jim crawled into his bed to deliver the details of his latest _master plan._ He should’ve known right then that it’d all fall apart somehow.

“What now?” Leonard groaned, yanking on the blanket Jim commandeered.

“Oh, just thinking.”

“Here we go.”

“Valentine’s Day is coming up. What do you say we go as each other’s backup?”

“I’d say you were dropped on your head one too many times as a child.”

Jim chuckled, and it warmed Leonard’s chest more than the blanket ever could. “That goes without saying, but I mean if neither of us can find a date, we go out and have a good time together. I’ll even buy you chocolates, flowers too, if you’re lucky,” he teased.

Leonard knew Jim couldn’t see him roll his eyes in the dark, but that didn’t stop him from picking up on it.

“I’m serious, Bones.”

“When has James T. Kirk ever had trouble finding a date?”

“Since the rumor I have the Gangorian clam started circulating,” he said with a dejected sigh. “Come on. It’ll be fun. Trust me. I’ll sweep you off your feet and everything.”

Leonard knew he’d give in eventually, so in order to speed things up in hopes of catching at least a few hours of sleep before his rotation in the clinic started, he agreed. “Fine, but I want the good chocolates, not something you pick up in the bargain bin at the pharmacy while you’re waiting for your Gangorian clam prescription.”

“Absolutely, whatever you want, Bones. I’ll even let you pick the restaurant.”

***

The week flew by without any mention of their pact. In fact, Leonard had almost written the whole thing off as a weird dream until the night before. He had his nose to his PADD reviewing illnesses for the clinical he had to oversee later that week when Jim came in.

He flopped on the couch, feet crossing on the coffee table. “Found a date yet?”

Leonard dropped his PADD to his lap and shot him a pointed look. “When would I have time to find a date when I can hardly find time to sleep?”

Jim grinned, and Leonard had a brief thought that the sun must’ve gone supernova. “I guess it’s just you and me tomorrow.”

“Don’t get too excited. I haven’t been on a date since…” Leonard let that thought die a quick death. “I’ll accept caramels too, you know.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. And I know I said I’d let you pick the restaurant, but I managed to get a reservation at that swanky stake place you drool at every time we pass by.”

“It makes the whole block smell like heaven.”

“Fair point.” Jim stood up, presumably to let Leonard get back to his work, but he stopped at his door and turned around. “You do own a tie, don’t you?”

Leonard scoffed. “Of course I own a tie! What kind of Neanderthal do you take me for? Now can I get back to studying? It’s bad enough I’m letting you drag my ass out tomorrow night.”

Jim nodded and grinned again before disappearing through the door, which Leonard appreciated because now he had to figure out a way to get a damn tie.

***

“Thanks, Nyota. I really appreciate this,” Leonard said as he let her tie the piece of fabric around his neck. “Where’d you learn how to do this anyway?”

She raised her brow in a way that he’d learned meant he wouldn’t get an answer. “I’m surprised you don’t.”

“I haven’t needed one in a long time.”

He tried to ignore his sweaty palms, but the closer the clock got to six, the more nervous he became. First and foremost, he and Jim were friends, best friends, anything beyond that—the weird fluttering in his chest, the flush he felt when Jim gave him a private smile, the warmth that grew in the pit of his stomach when they absolutely _did not_ flirt—could in no way jeopardize that.

This was nothing more than two friends having a night out because neither of them could land a date. How pathetic were they?

Nyota had just finished tightening the knot around his neck, which seemed appropriate, when his communicator sounded. “Jim?”

“Hey, Bones! I hope I caught you before you left.”

“Yeah, I’m about to walk out the door.”

“Oh, great! I hate to do this last minute, but I actually found a date….”

Leonard’s throat constricted as the rest of Jim’s ramblings turned into incoherent gibberish. He’d done his best not to get his hopes up, that maybe Jim had the tiniest of inklings of his ridiculous feelings, but he should’ve known good things never happen to Leonard McCoy.

“At least now you can stay home tonight. And don’t worry, I’ll make sure we go back to her place.”

“How considerate,” he bit out, nails digging into the palm of his balled up fist. “I gotta go, Jim.” He ended the call without another word and stood there more disappointed than he’d felt in a while.

“You can do better,” Nyota said, offering him a sympathetic smile as she ran her hand down the length of his tie.

“No,” he sighed, “I don’t think I can.”

***

It took thirty minutes of convincing plus the promise of several drinks before Nyota managed to drag him out to a club with a few of her friends, but even surrounded by beautiful women, Jim occupied his mind. At least the idiot had sounded happy; that’s all Leonard wanted for him. Because despite his cold exterior, he had a heart bigger than the Georgia sky. 

But fuck if it didn’t fracture as easily as a brick through stained glass.

He decided to drown his sorrows with expensive Scotch and good company and indulge the women with a few dances before he figured out how to piece the shards back together. And he had to admit, a night on the town without Jim and his crazy antics made him almost feel like an adult again, as opposed to a parent forced to watch his dumbass kid’s every move to make sure he didn’t stick his finger in a damn light socket.

The women made excellent companions for the evening, but by the time he’d walked them all home like the Southern Gentleman his mama raised, the haze from the alcohol had almost lifted. And by the time he got to his front door, he dreaded the emptiness he knew he’d find on the other side.

Let it never be said that Leonard McCoy was a coward, because he walked through that door with his head held high and only the slightest urge to hang himself with the now-loosened tie hanging from his neck.

The slightest movement caught his eye from the couch, muted gold shimmering in the moonlight streaming in from the window. “Jim?” He turned on the lamp by the door, and Jim squinted. “What are you doing here? And why are you sitting in the dark?”

The sound of a tumbler clanking against the coffee table echoed in the small apartment, and just before Leonard chided him about using a coaster, Jim spoke. “I think I messed up.”

“What’d you do?” Leonard asked, rushing to join him on the couch so he could check him over for wounds. He took Jim’s hand to examine his knuckles, the hot skin in stark contrast to his own, and he forgot to let go when Jim’s fingers vined their way between his.

Leonard tried to concentrate on anything but the way Jim’s thumb caressed his knuckle, because that bordered on torture, which the Federation had clear regulations against. 

“It should’ve been you.”

He’d never heard Jim sound so vulnerable before, his voice rough with regret and something like heartbreak, and for a moment, Leonard had no idea how to reply. “You mean at the restaurant?”

Jim gave a curt nod. “Nyota sent my a picture of you at the club, surround by those women, and—”

“You were jealous?”

“Of course I was! All those women on your arm, how could I not be?”

Leonard pulled his hand free. Jim could get just about any man, woman, or alien he put his mind to conquering, yet his pity party had Jim jealous?

“Now hold on one cotton-picking moment. You stood _me_ up, and then get jealous of me when I score more dates then you? Unbelievable.”

“What?” Jim asked, his face doing that weird squinty thing it did when something confused the hell out of him. Or that one time he lost a bet and had to eat ten lemons. “I’m not jealous of _you._ I was jealous of all those women, because it was supposed to be us tonight. I was supposed to be the one with my hand on your arm and my metaphorical lip print smudged on your cheek. But I blew it, didn’t I? I made a huge mistake.”

Leonard’s shoulders slumped. He quite get what Jim was trying to say, but maybe that was his heart’s way of protecting itself, not getting his hopes up because that just couldn’t be right. “I’m just your backup.”

“But don’t you get it, Bones? You’re not. Not really, not when all I could think about as she droned on about God only knows was you. Not when I…” He cut himself off, and Leonard looked at him dead-on for the first time since he arrived home.

“When you what, Jim?”

“When I love you.”

Leonard felt his eyebrows inching toward his hairline in shock, his eyes blinking as he processed Jim’s confession.

“I’m in love you with Leonard McCoy, and maybe I’m just now realizing it, or maybe I’ve been trying not to see it because what we have is amazing and I don’t want to ruin it because I’m an idiot. I mean, come on, Bones, we both know I’d be the one to screw it up… Or maybe I already have.”

Instead of stumbling over all the words he didn’t have the patience to sift through, he leaned forward, his head eclipsing Jim’s in the moonbeam, and kissed him. Nothing fancy at first, just the warm press of petal soft lips fitting together as Jim stitched up all the scattered pieces of his heart.

“At least you got the idiot part right.”

“Awe, Bones, you know you love me.” Jim smiled against his lips before pressing a tender kiss to them.

“Don’t press your luck, kid.”

But when Jim twisted fingers in his hair, lips parting to breathe Leonard in, he felt pretty damn confident that neither of them would ever need a backup again.


End file.
